Wrong caller ID shown, AT&T hasn't helped at all.

[The Person61]

I currently own an iPhone 3G, which was purchased earlier this year. When I got it, I tried calling someone after setting it up and the caller ID showed a completely different name was associated with my phone number. I tried calling at&t, and they said after about 30 minutes on the phone to wait about 24 hours and it should be fixed.

I waited 24 hours. Nothing was fixed. I waited another 3 weeks and still nothing was fixed. I called them, and they said that they would have to get another tech support guy to answer my question. After being on hold for another half-hour, they said "We need you to wait a few more minutes." I waited a few minutes, however the call was dropped cause I was under a bridge.

I called again, and still they couldn't do anything about it, they suggested that someone else's name is associated with that number, and is not in at&t's database, but rather some other caller ID database. It has not been fixed, and I am reluctant to call again because nothing will be accomplished.

I would like to be able to use my caller ID name, but since at&t has done nothing to help I have to set it to not show caller ID, in the settings pane.

Also, since my Caller ID is messed up, I keep receiving random calls for "Valdez Saucedo" from Texas, Arizona, or some other random U.S. Area code. That happened for a few months, and then the caller stopped asking me to confirm that I was/was not the person, which I was obviously not. Also, when the person actually said something, it just went to voicemail so I could not press "1" to have them stop calling. Now, I keep getting calls from the same number, except when I answer it there is no sound coming from the other end of the call. Just silence.

If at&t would be so kind as to at least help me get my caller ID fixed, and stop this person from calling me (since you can't blacklist on the iphone), then that would be nice. If I am paying >$50 a month for my phone service, I would at least like it to show the correct information when I call people.

Since people might get this confused, IT DOES NOT SHOW AN INCORRECT NUMBER WHEN I CALL PEOPLE. IT SHOWS MY NAME TO BE "VALDEZ SAUCEDO" WHICH IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT MY NAME!

If at&t does not resolve this soon, I am never going to purchase cell phone service from them again. 

[Scholar Yoshi]

If you want to block a number from calling you, get the Smart Limits feature and add it to the blocked number list.

If att has allready updated you username in the system then the problem is with the person you are calling and their service, also the person you are calling may need to clear their caller ID history to get the name to show correctly.

Also you can change your caller id name by logging in at att.com/mywireless and changing your user name there I believe.

Message Edited by Scholar Yoshi on 12-23-2009 04:44:35 PM

[The Person61]

It is not a problem with the person I am calling's service, because I am trying to call someone who is on the family plan that my phone is registered on. Also, it does not work when I try calling a landline. It is not a problem with the person's service, it is a problem with the caller ID registration.

Also, changing the account name is out of the question, because it will change the way it is set up for the rest of the people on the plan.

At&t said that they have changed it, but I have no way of knowing that what they said is true, because the caller ID has not changed to the one that I specified. 

What I am trying to get is for at&t to actually CHANGE the caller ID that is shown, which they obviously have not done, because their customer support is horrible.

Message Edited by The Person61 on 12-23-2009 05:05:04 PM

[Scholar Yoshi]

how will changing your online username effect everyone on the plan?

if the person your calling is not showing your number correctly have them add you as a contact and the phone should default to the contact on their phone when retriving the caller id info.

[tonester]

I had success in emailing ATT support to have them change my Caller ID--what I did was to log into my ATT wireless account online, then click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page; another page should open--click on the "Email Us" link in the Customer Service section, which should then open another page which details a three-step process:  Step 1--verify your contact info; Step 2--under "Email subject" select "Plan", then under "Sub-topic 1" select "I want to change my plan, features, or wireless number", then under "Sub-topic 2" select "Add/delete features"; then in Step 3 provide the required info and in the "Enter your question below" field, enter something similar to this:

Please change the outgoing Caller ID name for the line: XXX-XXX-XXXX
to the name: <your name>.

Currently, the outgoing caller ID name for the wireless number in
question is <type incorrect name here> and I would like it to
be changed to the following name (type your name here) associated with that
number so that people receiving calls from that number do not mistakenly
think that it is someone else who is calling them.

Feel free to modify the wording to better explain your situation if need be; I went about in this manner and my request was resolved pretty quickly (ATT states that Caller ID name changes may take up to 72 hours but it didn't take anywhere near that long for my Caller ID change request to take effect); I had put in this request because I have two lines on my account which is under my name only...so of course the Caller ID for both numbers would display just my name--a bit confusing for folks receiving a call from one of the lines since I use one line and my wife uses the other.

Note--ATT will explain to you that any account-impacting changes may cause the Caller ID information to revert back to what it was before the change, so you may want to make sure your account is in order before putting in the Caller ID change request.

Message Edited by tonester on 12-24-2009 08:59:40 AM

[The Person61]

I guess that I will have to email them, because since I am not the account owner then changing the username will affect the account owner's caller ID. Thank you for the help, though.

[Preluder711]

There is alot of wrong information here. First when att changes the caller id name it is per line not the actual account name, they have a seperate profile tab in there system that allows to set the user caller ID name and will have no effect to the Account holders information. This is all the CSR have to do to change the name for your caller ID. After that the Lan line has to sysnch with there data base which is usually done every 24hrs. If it is still showing incorrectly then you must contact the LAN line provider that is showing it wrong. Also Caller ids revert to stored info so you have to delete any call records in the caller ID you are calling. So if you called that number and it came up john doe, even after att changes it to Jane Doe it will continue to come up as John Doe until that previous call is deleted from its records.

[funcritter]

The above is correct. I was able to call AT&T late last night and have the caller ID changed on my one day old iPhone account. Bill is in someone else's name and I wanted it in my name. Very easy phone call to make. She told me to make sure we cleared out the caller ID unit(s).

[Preluder711]

Also if your calling someone on your family plan wireless phones to not display the caller id names, only what the end user has programmed as the contact name in the phone

[Hack]

And some cable providers don't update the records until you call them...just sayin'.

[Patrick63]

Call 18003310500 tech support menu option,Politely but firmly insist on talking direct to a tech support rep. they fixed mine in 2 minutes, customer support can't help this issue.

[Patrick63]

Caller ID Debackle

     My wife and I share a cell phone account since 2005, with her as named on the account. That is when my caller ID became stuck on her name. For 6 years!!! I called AT&T Customer Service till I gave up. Then in 2012 I bought an I-Phone and was not going to let this go on any longer. In the AT&T Local Store I asked my agent Sam(Essam) "Have you ever heard of this problem"?, he had and said it can be remedied by calling Customer Support 1(800) 331-0500 (611 on cell phone).

     Well after 2 calls and asking for a tech support person which I did'nt get but was told my name is on the account so my name should show up in 72 hours , to which I asked, in the customer service notes on my account  is their anything that says my name was just add in the last few minutes? answer was no, so I know nothing has been recently  done and I got the same result. NA DA Nothing Changed what a suprise! Now I am livid and about to kiss AT&T off.

     Then after doing a google search on this problem,and reading other comments on AT&T's own customer blog, I realized I never was actually provided assistance from an "Actual Tech Rep". So I called the last time and after the same run around I insisted on speaking to a Tech Rep My Self! I gave a short explaination of my problem, the tech rep said he sees the problem and can fix it in 2 minutes, but it may take 72 hours to take effect depending on who the caller and receivers Phone companys are.

     Well it took 2 seconds to take effect. I know because I tested just before and just after the change, Then I asked Why am I and a lot of other people having this issue. After some give and take, I learned a few things.

     1. Even if your name is listed on your phone bill under the correct number, it has nothing to do with your name on Caller ID.

     2. AT&T has a data base of all it's numbers and is supposed to update the caller ID Name in the Caller ID Data Base every time their is a change, closed account change remove old name, new account add new name, But They are more motivated to getting the new service activated, billing and collecting payments and less intrested in the caller ID Data Base being Updated correctly and timely.

     3. An AT&T caller ID data base change takes effect immediatly after it is entered into the actual data base for all customers in the AT&T system.(tech rep did'nt seem to know this)

     4. All Phone Service providers have an obligation to Syncronize their own caller ID Data Bases with all the other US Providers, Larger providers do this about every few business days, smaller providers syncronize every 60 days, some may go years if ever, apparently their is little or no oversight by Govt' agencies on this issue, so the industry is left to its own oversight if any. 

     5. Caller ID Service Provides Callers Phone Number and Callers Name To Land Lines. (Home phone with the caller ID Enabled) But only the callers Number is provided to a cell phone being called.

     6. A cell phone CAN display the callers name BUT ONLY IF the cell phones owner has added the callers name and and number in to the cell phones contact list (Address Book) before hand, then the cell phone can add corresponding Address Book Name to the Caller ID Number and display BOTH together seemlessly.

     7. AT&T has NOT effectively, if at all, Trained ANY of their customer service reps on this issue. So this will continue to be a problem to the unlucky few who fall between the cracks in the AT&T System.

     8. When calling AT&T customer service phone numbers above, and selecting Tech support on the voice menu, you will not talk to a tech rep , but a customer service agent, you have to politely (very difficult after the lousy service) insist on talking directly to a tech support rep.,then and only then will you get this issue resolved.

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

See

https://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB107460

[tonester]

---

johninsj wrote:

See

https://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB107460

---

Now I don't know how long the ability to get Caller ID changed for individual lines via OLAM had existed but I reckon such a method must have been a relatively-recent feature; I know it didn't exist when I had to go through some hoops to get the CID info on one of my lines (used by my wife) changed so that it wouldn't show my name in the CID display whenever she called someone from her phone...so I can sympathize/relate with Patrick63.

[banksd05]

I sure hope this works.  I have been trying for 4 years to get mine correct.  Every time the customer service rep insists that all I need is to clear the house phones memory (hasn't worked).  And ... in my profile, the name is correct, so that doesn't work either.  This has been frustrating and continues to be so. 

In fact, I feel like they treat me like I have no brain.  I even asked them to hang up and let me call them so they could see the problem, but they told me there was no way to do that.  

What is so difficult about this?? My problem is that my phone shows a company name on it (I retired from there 4 years ago).   Plus, my daughter's phone shows my name even though the profile shows her name.  This is totally frustrating!

[JFizDaWiz]

all we can do is update the name in our database. once updated in our database it is up to EVERY OTHER company to pull that info. it can take 72 hours to go through our systems but after that no longer an issue with AT&T. Some companies only change it maybe once a year if that

[Thalilkid]

This is what I did. I know I am a little late but anywho. Go in to myAT&T login to your myAT&T account. Click on your line. Scroll down to "View". Click on your line again. Then click "Edit" and finish the fields.